Nairobi: The Kenya Agricultural Finance Corporation (AFC) has won a prestigious global award for its sustainability efforts, underscoring its growing role in financing a climate-resilient and environmentally sustainable agricultural sector. The Corporation was recognized for its initiatives in climate-smart lending, the planting of 1.49 million trees, and expanding finance to underserved farmers and businesses.
According to Kenya News Agency, the ‘Outstanding Business Sustainability Achievement’ was awarded at the 2026 Global Sustainable Finance Conference in Karlsruhe, Germany. The Award comes as AFC intensifies efforts to make climate resilience a central component of agricultural financing, currently supporting 213,740 active borrowers through an agricultural financing portfolio of about Sh13 billion.
In a press statement, AFC Managing Director George Kubai, who received the Award on behalf of the Corporation, stated that the recognition affirmed its commitment to transforming Kenya’s agricultural sector through sustainable financing. Kubai emphasized AFC’s role in steering Kenya’s agricultural sector toward climate resilience and sustainability, and he expressed the Corporation’s intention to continue expanding its sustainable finance portfolio, which empowers farmers, strengthens agricultural value chains, and helps communities withstand the effects of climate change in line with the Government’s Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA).
AFC’s sustainability initiatives have also extended to environmental conservation, with borrowers required to plant one tree for every Sh10,000 advanced. This initiative has resulted in the planting of more than 1.49 million trees by AFC, its clients, and local communities across all its 47 branches during the 2024/25 and 2025/26 Financial Years. Moreover, AFC has implemented Environmental and Social Management System screening for all loan applications, ensuring environmental and social considerations are integrated into lending decisions.
The Corporation’s green financing programs include the DRIVE Programme, which supports climate-smart financing in pastoral economies in arid and semi-arid areas, and the SAFER Programme, providing affordable financing to MSMEs, with priority given to women- and youth-owned enterprises. Through the RK-FINFA programme, AFC channels green finance through SACCOs to underserved rural communities, benefiting 5,870 individuals, 65 per cent of whom are women.
Kubai mentioned that AFC has further mobilized Sh161.8 million for climate-resilient irrigation through a USD77,370 credit guarantee facility, achieving a leverage ratio of more than 16:1. AFC was the first institution in Kenya to achieve Sustainability Standards and Certification Initiative (SSCI) certification, a milestone followed by the integration of climate risk management into its operations and financing decisions.
Arshad Rab, Chairman of the International Council of Sustainability Standards for Value-Driven Financial Institutions and CEO of the European Organization for Sustainable Development, remarked that the Award reflected AFC’s ability to translate sustainability commitments into practical action. Rab highlighted the critical role of agriculture in food security, employment, enterprise development, and economic resilience, making sustainable agricultural finance vital to Kenya’s development.
